Bullet Casting & Coating MegaThread

Popping this on here for anyone that might not follow the reloading room thread

Ballistic gel test with the 45-70. Had about 10-12 loads to test out. These were the best. Seems alloy doesn’t matter as much as hollow point design when it comes to speed.
Penta likes the 1100 or so and the cup was at home flying 1550. I could push it more and have no issues.
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Made some ingots today, this was my very first attempt. Went to tire shop last night, paid $20 for a 5 gal pail that weighed 140 lbs, yikes!
Well, at the end of the day, I got 31.5 lbs of lead "muffins" ;)
The whole process really wasnt too bad. Cant wait for my items to arrive so I can start making bullets :)
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TZCHRIS said:
Made some ingots today, this was my very first attempt. Went to tire shop last night, paid $20 for a 5 gal pail that weighed 140 lbs, yikes!
Well, at the end of the day, I got 31.5 lbs of lead "muffins" ;)
The whole process really wasnt too bad. Cant wait for my items to arrive so I can start making bullets :)
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Damn that’s a lot of waste! Mostly zinc or steel?

Great job though and the price is still great.
 
TZCHRIS said:
Mostly steel, I did see on Youtube they were making bullets from the zinc? Is this a thing? Pros & cons? I didnt save it but was curious.
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You can do it.
Pros
You get to use the scrap no one wants
It is harder than lead so it can handle higher velocities.
They’re technically lead free if your range or hunting needs calls for that.

Cons
More brittle so the hollow points tend to explode.
The molten alloy will eat through steel pots and eat away at steel moulds from what I’m told. My experience is it cause a cast iron pot to have a pinhole leak covering my burner in zinc.
It’s very hard so if you don’t cut the sprue immediately after filling the mould it’s damn hard.
That lead me to the increased wear of moulds due to having to beat the snot out of the sprue plate.
It’s much lighter than lead so finding load data isn’t always that easy.

It’s fun to play with and I’ve done it myself. A friend swore by the zinc slug I cast for him and when we dug them out of the berm they looked like you could dust them off and load them again.
 
TZCHRIS said:
Mostly steel, I did see on Youtube they were making bullets from the zinc? Is this a thing? Pros & cons? I didnt save it but was curious.
Click to expand...
You can make bullets from zinc but it takes more heat and I fought with casfting zinc bullets. I did cast a bunch of zinc shotgun slugs but destroyed the mold in the process. It would not release well.
Zinc comes out lighter and undersized for me.
Zinc can stick to aluminum and brass molds. I used to sell my scrap zinc weights to a gent who made cannon balls and bullets for a breach loader
3” cannon and IIRC he had a 30mm breach loading cannon from the late 1800s
I had not seen him for sometime and when I asked around I found out he lost the fight with cancer.
He once told me he casted his zinc in sand and could use the cannon balls many times over if he found them
 
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TZCHRIS said:
Mostly steel, I did see on Youtube they were making bullets from the zinc? Is this a thing? Pros & cons? I didnt save it but was curious.
Click to expand...
The past 5 years ago its been about 1/3 or so lead at best in the wheel weights I get although im getting a few buckets from a new source and even at work ZINC has been diminishing
Steel is really taking over. Especially the stick ons
 
Need some more molds. Not going to melt the foundry bars. But sitting on a pretty decent pile. Do the red neck gold ones fit in a bottom pour production pot. Or am I better off making some out of angle iron. Wouldn't hurt to have something different for this melt to keep it different. It's all the same alloy probably 3/4 to a ton
 
Demoman said:
Need some more molds. Not going to melt the foundry bars. But sitting on a pretty decent pile. Do the red neck gold ones fit in a bottom pour production pot. Or am I better off making some out of angle iron. Wouldn't hurt to have something different for this melt to keep it different. It's all the same alloy probably 3/4 to a ton
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The redneck ones fit fine. I forgot the exact dimensions but they’re narrow.
 
Demoman said:
Need some more molds. Not going to melt the foundry bars. But sitting on a pretty decent pile. Do the red neck gold ones fit in a bottom pour production pot. Or am I better off making some out of angle iron. Wouldn't hurt to have something different for this melt to keep it different. It's all the same alloy probably 3/4 to a ton
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I dont know if they fit I ladle pour all my ignots. Might do some smelting today. Started melting down some lead “collars” with the old lineman stove. Just muffin pan gnots with those.
 
Demoman said:
Went to the spot today tide wasn't even that good found two more foundry bars. Just doing my part for the environment.
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You finding these with MD’er? Where or how do you think they got there. Always like a story. My cousin finds all sorts of cool stuff walking the beach. Shes has researched all the shipwrecks along that stretch of water. She recently found a small bell that had the name of a ship that went down not far from where she is that sank in the 30s. Some one told her its “service” bell or “cooks” bell?
 
mac1911 said:
You finding these with MD’er? Where or how do you think they got there. Always like a story. My cousin finds all sorts of cool stuff walking the beach. Shes has researched all the shipwrecks along that stretch of water. She recently found a small bell that had the name of a ship that went down not far from where she is that sank in the 30s. Some one told her its “service” bell or “cooks” bell?
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Just finding them on the surface. They we ship ballast. Back in the depression the federal government commissioned ship breaking in boston Harbour 125 or so ships were stripped of all value and brought too light ship dumping grounds and scuttled. There is a 2 mile area were most of this happened. On area were there was ship breaking up to not long ago I have found some pretty nice stuff over the years metal detector would be useless with the amount of debrie. This is my best find buy was in 30ft of water can track it down to 5 ships
 

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mac1911 said:
You finding these with MD’er? Where or how do you think they got there. Always like a story. My cousin finds all sorts of cool stuff walking the beach. Shes has researched all the shipwrecks along that stretch of water. She recently found a small bell that had the name of a ship that went down not far from where she is that sank in the 30s. Some one told her its “service” bell or “cooks” bell?
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I have spent many of hours researching wrecks of the coast and diving on them. Fortunate enough to work on the water 1/4 to 1/2 the time with some pretty neat tools. ( hey can you take the tug up to the Merrimac) no problem I will drag the side scan sonar the whole way.
 
Demoman said:
Just finding them on the surface. They we ship ballast. Back in the depression the federal government commissioned ship breaking in boston Harbour 125 or so ships were stripped of all value and brought too light ship dumping grounds and scuttled. There is a 2 mile area were most of this happened. On area were there was ship breaking up to not long ago I have found some pretty nice stuff over the years metal detector would be useless with the amount of debrie. This is my best find buy was in 30ft of water can track it down to 5 ships
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Any of that fancy low radiation lead? What’s that stuff called?
 
No plain old pour lead lot of ships are ballast with lead steel shot (rivet pieces) incased in concrete 10000 a yard or plain concrete. There is plenty of the fancy radioactive stuff out there in the foul area off stellwagon if that's your kind of thing
 
I was actually talking about the opposite. It’s the stuff that’s been below the water since before the atomic bomb test and nuclear reactors. It’s supposed to have hardly any radiation in it.
I guess all the stuff above the water absorbs some level of radiation and isn’t as pure in that way.
It was worth big bucks.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
I was actually talking about the opposite. It’s the stuff that’s been below the water since before the atomic bomb test and nuclear reactors. It’s supposed to have hardly any radiation in it.
I guess all the stuff above the water absorbs some level of radiation and isn’t as pure in that way.
It was worth big bucks.
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Going to have to hit it with a Geiger counter do you have one
 
Visited s local shop today,
South Shore Tactical in Hanover Ma
Always worth a look. Although bare as most shops with anything new and exciting has some stuff and your bound to find something if your not just into the latest and greatest stuff

i walked away with 2 molds
31141 - this is a 170ish gn .309 with a bore riding nose design.

311359- 115 gn 309 GC bullet for the 30 carbine/762x39
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mac1911 said:
Visited s local shop today,
South Shore Tactical in Hanover Ma
Always worth a look. Although bare as most shops with anything new and exciting has some stuff and your bound to find something if your not just into the latest and greatest stuff

i walked away with 2 molds
31141 - this is a 170ish gn .309 with a bore riding nose design.

311359- 115 gn 309 GC bullet for the 30 carbine/762x39
View attachment 519674
Click to expand...
You’re killing me lol. I have been meaning to go there since you talked about them months ago and I slacked. Early bird gets the 31141 lol
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
You’re killing me lol. I have been meaning to go there since you talked about them months ago and I slacked. Early bird gets the 31141 lol
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No idea if the 31141 is going to do well or not? Hes running thin on molds had some 44 cal offerings and some round ball molds.
Few older handles, I picked up a set of lee 6 cavity handles. He knows what molds get good money. I hear mixed review on the 359 but i really like the light gas checked bullets for fooling around at 50-100 yards.
Only thing I have not seen there is gas checks.
 

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